Everything Sad Is Untrue

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. Why do we have story time? Why are stories important for remembering? What do they tell us about our society?

Teaching Suggestion: Daniel uses Storytelling as a Way of Remembering and Surviving. He recounts stories from both his past and from Iranian myths and legends. Getting students to think about their relationship with stories is another way of drawing attention to this narrative structure, and it can also help them to think more broadly about how stories are a part of culture.

• “The Importance of Storytelling and Story Creation” by Kate Hurst describes how stories are critical to understanding others, which is much like how Daniel uses them in Everything Sad Is Untrue.
• “Storytelling and Cultural Traditions” is a resource from National Geographic that explores different cultures and their traditions, giving examples of stories that matter to different groups of people.

2. Let’s test your memory! Name some of the world’s major religions and faith traditions. What are some of their key characteristics? What practices do they include?

Teaching Suggestion: Daniel and his family are forced to leave Iran after Sima becomes a Christian and secretly attends church. As a result, religion is a recurring motif, and thinking about it can help students refresh their recollections about Christianity and Islam in particular. This question can also be a helpful way to introduce religious persecution and the way people from the Middle East are treated in the United States because many assume that the Middle East is a monolith where everyone is Muslim.

• “The Global Religious Landscape” provides data from the Pew Research Center about religious affiliation worldwide. Its graphs are divided into subcategories, including by geography.
• “URI Kids: World Religions” from the United Religious Initiative offers basic definitions of religion and spiritual traditions and has sections devoted to several of the world’s major traditions and religions to help familiarize students with their practices.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the text.

Mrs. Miller, Daniel’s fifth-grade teacher, appears only sporadically throughout the novel, but she has a large impact on his experience in school. She doesn’t say much to Daniel, only offering feedback through his recounting of his life as we read it through Everything Sad Is Untrue. Can you think of a teacher that had a large effect on your life? Why was that? Were they actively involved in your life or a quiet supporter? What made them stand out?

Teaching Suggestion: Mrs. Miller actually plays a similar role to the reader in the novel, serving as the king to Daniel’s Scheherazade. Additionally, because she finds a balance between speaking and listening to Daniel, he feels heard and supported. Help students to think about their responses and encourage them to consider some of the similarities between their favorite teacher and Mrs. Miller as they read the novel.

Differentiation Suggestion: Students with different learning styles or who struggle with writing long passages might start by simply making a list of the qualities of a good teacher on one side of a T-chart. Then, they can explain an example of those good qualities in a teacher that they had on the other side of the chart.